In January 2018, Governor Brown issued an executive order for 5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2030 and the installation of 250,000 electric vehicle chargers and 200 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025. Previously, he established the foundation to support 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2025 and published a ZEV Action Plan. As part of its work on zero-emission vehicles, the Energy Commission provides funding for plug-in electric vehicle charging, hydrogen refueling stations, and guidance on plug-in electric and hydrogen vehicle infrastructure deployment.

San Francisco, June 11, 2018: FortifID has joined the Trans-Atlantic Coast to Coast Smart e-Mobility Program to facilitate the development of the US and Netherlands Smart e-Mobility market.

“Coast-to-Coast Smart e-Mobility (S4C) is excited that FortifID is joining the partnership”, shared Peter van Deventer, Director. “As an innovator and disruptor FortifID brings unique expertise to the smart e-mobility sector. Their privacy preserving data solutions on the blockchain may prove to be crucial for data integrity which is essential for Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared Mobility platforms. I consider them to be a great asset to the transatlantic cooperation between Netherlands and California. FortifID’s ambition to support and accelerate solutions for smarter and cleaner electric transportation is inspiring.”

“By joining the Coast to Coast Smart e-Mobility Program we will be able to enhance use of the extended network, strong partnerships, unlock new business opportunities and contribute to the success of the Smart e-Mobility Alliance” says Anirban Basak, CEO of FortifID.

ABOUT FORTIFID

FortifID is a software company that enables a frictionless digital ecosystem with enhanced consumer data privacy. The FortifID platform provides services to consumers, data providers and online service providers. Consumers can create and use multiple personas that can be used to seamlessly obtain different online services while restricting the personal information divulged to get those services. Data Providers form a “Circle of Trust”to allow vetted privacy-preserving data analytics to be invoked on their data via smart contracts on the blockchain. Businesses can perform customer verification and market to individuals in a privacy-preserving manner.

FortifID helps businesses with GDPR compliance by making it possible to analyze consumer data without requiring the raw data to be copied or shared.

Commercial applicability for e-Mobility includes authentication/KYC, directly matching institutional business offers to consumers, enabling consumers to maintain data privacy while charging at public charging stations, and the ability for businesses to provide value-added services such as driver discounts in a privacy-preserving manner. We also envision extending the “Circle of Trust”to include charging networks, allowing analytic solutions to be run on usage patterns to enable insights such as optimal placement of charging stations, and predictions about charging infrastructure requirements.

On Tuesday, June 19, the Dutch smart charging company and S4C-partner GreenFlux will present a demonstrator for smart charging in Portland, Oregon at EV Roadmap 11. The demonstrator shows how smart charging works in practice by presenting online data of different projects in Europe where cars are being charged in a smart and sustainable way.

The demonstrator is a next step on the way to a Living Lab Smart Charging at UC Davis, CA, which was announced earlier this year and that will be implemented this Summer. The Living Lab Smart Charging is a cooperation between the Dutch – US Coast to Coast Smart eMobility Program (S4C) and UC Davis to combine and further develop Dutch and US knowledge and experience on smart charging.

‘Smart charging; the Dutch approach’ will also be the topic of a special breakfast workshop which will be organized by the Coast to Coast Smart eMobility program at EV Roadmap 11 on Wednesday, June 20.

Leading smart charging company for electric mobility secures EUR 11 million funding to accelerate international expansion

Sustainable energy company Eneco Group and independent investment fund SET Ventures have both acquired a minority stake in Amsterdam-based GreenFlux Assets BV (“GreenFlux”), as part of a total Series B round of EUR 11M. Existing shareholders BOM Brabant Ventures and ICT Group NV also participated in the round. The investment in a leading enabler of electric driving and smart charging supports Eneco Group’s and SET Ventures’ ambitions to accelerate the energy transition by means of technology. Fortaleza Capital acted as exclusive corporate finance advisor to GreenFlux on this Series B financing round.

GreenFlux provides an electric mobility infrastructure management platform that supports the operations of charge point operators all over the world. GreenFlux helps energy companies, grid operators and automotive players to manage charge stations, enable roaming and billing and implement smart charging for advanced energy management. The GreenFlux service platform is cloud-based and seamlessly connects with charge stations of any type or brand. GreenFlux’s award winning controller, enabling advanced smart charging, can be fitted in any charge station.

The coming years millions of electric vehicles will enter the market. For this transition to happen, charging must be frictionless and easy to use. The GreenFlux platform drives down the cost of operations for charge point operators and enables them to provide an outstanding service experience to their customers. Combined with state-of-the-art smart charging technology that ensures the stability of the grid, electric vehicles will become an important enabler for a sustainable future.

GreenFlux founders, Hans de Boer and Jurjen de Jong: ‘We are very happy this investment provides the opportunity to power dominant EV charge point operators in Europe, US and Asia. A big step forward in fulfilling our dream that all cars will be powered by renewable energy’.

Joeri Kamp, managing director Eneco Smart Energy: ‘Eneco is fully committed to speed up the transition to a more sustainable energy system. We believe that e-mobility and smart, real-time charging from renewable sources are essential parts of that system. This is a purpose we share with the team at GreenFlux. Through our investment we want to help them bring their front running service platform and controller to the next level and accelerate international expansion.’

‘The team at Greenflux has succeeded in establishing a leading position in EV infrastructure management’ said Anton Arts, Associate Partner at SET Ventures. ‘This investment enables them to accelerate international expansion and drive the pace of innovation in this market forward.’

About Eneco Group

Eneco Group is a group of companies active internationally in the field of renewable energy and innovation. Together with their customers, partners and more than 3,000 employees, they work on their mission: sustainable energy for all. They invest in wind farms, biomass plants, heat and solar parks to increase the supply of renewable energy. And they develop innovative products and services so that their customers can control how to generate, store, use or share energy. www.enecogroup.com

About SET Ventures

Since 2007, Amsterdam-based SET Ventures has invested in European technology companies that impact the future of the energy sector. SET Ventures focuses broadly on innovative energy generation, energy distribution and storage and energy efficiency. SET’s investment priority is for those ventures that develop software-based services for the energy sector, with or without hardware components, defined by SET Ventures as smart energy solutions. www.setventures.com

Smart mobility research seeks to ease traffic congestion by getting us where we need to be faster, safer, and with fewer negative impacts on the environment. To further this research, the province of North Brabant entered into an agreement with the state of Ohio, its capital city, Columbus, and Ohio State University (OSU) to share knowledge and experiences regarding innovations in smart mobility. Student exchanges between OSU and TU Eindhoven will also take place. It’s a nice idea, but the collaboration left some wondering why? Why partner with a city 6500 kilometers away when Eindhoven already has strong research facilities in the Automotive Campus and TU Eindhoven?

“For Dutch partners it’s a match made in heaven,” says Peter van Deventer, Director of the “Coast to Coast Smart e-Mobility” program, which is based at the Dutch Consulate of San Francisco. Coast to Coast played a major role in bringing this agreement together, and van Deventer was an important facilitator along with Eindhoven’s mayor Rob van Gijzel. Van Deventer first looked to Ohio because he received his PhD in engineering from OSU 25 years ago. He reconnected when he saw their research regarding smart mobility and informed them of what is happening between the Netherlands and the West Coast. Interested, OSU joined the Coast to Coast program in 2014 and a Midwest network began.

“A paradigm shift in mobility has occurred over the past 10 years,” says van Deventer. “What we once only dreamed of is becoming a reality and the auto industry is investing billions.” Self-driving cars and vehicles powered solely on electricity are no longer a science fiction fantasy. “Mobility is changing rapidly and there’s new initiative,” he continues. He cites the booming market in China for electric vehicles as an example, along with the demand for zero emission buses within the next decade. Increased mobility and transportation systems are also vital for cities’ livability standards. “If you look at the budgets for Smart City investments, somewhere between 50 to 75 percent is going towards new mobility solutions,” he says. “It’s wise for the Netherlands to align with international activity. Connections are key and this city (Columbus, Ohio) has the ambition and the resources.”

In 2016, Columbus competed against 77 other American cities to win the Smart City Challenge. The U.S. Department of Transportation challenged cities “to use emerging transportation technologies to address their most pressing problems through a mixture of competition, collaboration, and experimentation.” The city received $40 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation and an additional $10 million from Paul Allen’s Vulcan, Inc. The city already raised $90 million from private partners with the goal to becoming “an electrified, low-emissions transportation hub,” according to an article in Tech Republic.

“We were looking for opportunities beyond Silicon Valley and found Columbus’s size (population 860,000) appealing,” says Johann Beelen of Brainport Eindhoven. Some of the fields already in collaboration, according to Beelen, include smart traffic management, living labs, self-driving cars, traffic safety issues, and connected cars or “platooning” (a group of vehicles, usually self-driving cars, that can travel close together safely at a high speed). In addition, he says, “several smart mobility companies from Brainport Eindhoven are developing businesses over there.” For instance, NXP is working with Columbus to deploy wireless technology that allows cars to exchange data, preventing accidents and improving the flow of traffic. V-tron, 2Getthere, and OC Mobility also look to expand their business to Ohio.

Since the Eindhoven region is also steeped in technology, named the world’s “Intelligent Community of the Year” for 2011 by the Intelligent Community Forum, it makes sense for the two regions to form a partnership. Both Columbus and Eindhoven “are mid-sized growing cities,” says Bram Hendrix with AutomotiveNL. “This partnership is a good example of what can be done all over the world. We are working on similar projects and have lots of experience with self-driving vehicles and electrifying vehicles. It accelerates the development to study there and see how we can use it here.”

“The American Midwest is the hub of the auto industry,” says van Deventer. “We signed a letter of intent, positioning ourselves to set up businesses and create jobs. It is a stepping stone to further action.”

On April 18th, Dutch Secretary of State Van Veldhoven, opened the new test site of ElaadNL in Arnhem. At the test location, all different types of charging stations that are used in the Netherlands are available for tests with electric cars. For example, the effects of charging new types of cars on the electricity grid can be tested. Tests with Smart Charging are also possible. This means cars are instructed to charge faster or slower based on the availability of (sustainable) electricity on the grid. These tests are essential now the numbers of electric cars are growing. All are plugged into the existing network to charge.

The test site is located in business park Arnhems Buiten (former KEMA site) and contains all types of charging stations that are used in the public area in the Netherlands. This includes a fast charger, a charging island, a battery and two charging lanterns. Moreover, the site is equipped with meters so that unique tests and research can be carried out. For example, a new model of electric car can be tested on the interaction with all charging stations throughout the Netherlands before it enters our roads in large numbers. Grid operators can test what a car (actually a battery on wheels) does with the quality of the current. In addition, tests are being done with Smart Charging: instructing the car to charge faster or slower at certain times. For example when extra power from the sun or wind is available or in case an overload of the local electricity grid can occur. This way extra CO2 can be saved.

“An asset for the Netherlands”

State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, Van Veldhoven: “Charging your electric vehicle should be as easy as charging your phone. This testing facility is therefore a great asset for the Netherlands: here we can experiment and see what works, how we can charge and find ways to make electric driving as easy as possible. That knowledge is essential for making transportation cleaner, fighting climate change and fulfil the Paris agreements. Let’s reduce our carbon emissions by the megatons!
Onoph Caron, managing director of ElaadNL: “For electric cars it’s not just a matter of how well they drive, it’s just as important how well they charge. These are big electrical machines that can demand a lot of our electricity grid and our charging infrastructure. Together with our partners, we can now test and measure the way we charge vehicles with all charging stations available in the Netherlands. For the future of electric driving in the Netherlands, important things are going to happen here on this test site!”

More about the Elaad Test Lab

The Elaad Test Lab is a unique laboratory with a test site for research on and testing of Smart Charging, Power Quality and Interoperability. It includes, among other things, the various types of charging stations in the public space in the Netherlands, a fast charger, two charging lanterns, a battery (138 kWh), a charging island, solar panels and urban windmills that can all be centrally controlled via a computer system. They form a completely smart energy system. The Test Lab is equipped so that unique tests and in-depth investigations can be carried out. In this way, the charging behaviour of cars can be analysed in great detail and things such as switch-on peaks, inefficient energy consumption and high frequency disturbances on the current and voltage can be measured.

The tests mainly take place on three themes:

1. Smart Charging

Tests with Smart Charging: instructing the electric car and infrastructure to charge faster or slower at certain times. For example, when extra power from the sun or wind is available or if an overload of the local electricity grid occurs. We can also test whether an electric car is Smart Charging ready: can the car handle different charging speeds and delayed charging? Does it respond in time and is the car still charging efficiently at lower speeds?

2. Power Quality

Testing Power Quality. What effect does a charging electric car have on the quality of the electric current, the voltage and the stability of the electricity grid? If vehicles cause distortion of the grid voltage, this can lead to problems on other connected electrical devices, but also on electric cars and charging stations themselves. The effects can be recorded in detail and studied at the ElaadNL Test Lab.

3. Interoperability

Car manufacturers and battery manufacturers can test their products at the ElaadNL Test Lab on interoperability and compatibility. For example, a new model of electric car can be tested on the interaction with all the different types of charging stations in the Netherlands before it enters our roads in large numbers. This ensures car manufacturers that their car can communicate correctly with the different types of charging stations in the Netherlands, so that charging problems can be prevented.

The Netherlands is the country most prepared for an autonomous vehicle future according to KPMG’s 2018 Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI). The first-of-its-kind study evaluated 20 countries overall. The study judged countries on their ability to adopt and integrate self-driving vehicles. The study also highlights best practices for accelerating AV technology.

But there’s more for anyone interested in autonomous driving.

NACTO is an association of 62 major North American cities and ten transit agencies formed to exchange transportation ideas, insights, and practices and cooperatively approach national transportation issues. NACTO’s mission is to build cities as places for people, with safe, sustainable, accessible and equitable transportation choices that support a strong economy and vibrant quality of life.

How will autonomous vehicles (AVs) affect the evolution of our cities, the way we plan and design our multimodal transport infrastructure, and provide mobility to all socio-economic groups? Have a look at the latest research of Fehr & Peers, on how will autonomous vehicles influence the future of travel?

The National Street Service Cities Program is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to make streets better for their community. During the program, people look at, listen to, and observe their street; create opportunities to help others reimagine what the street is for; and collaborate on projects to make streets welcoming for everyone.

Achmea, the largest insurance group in the Netherlands, has joined our international Coast-to-Coast Smart e-Mobility program S4C. The world of mobility is changing ever faster. As a large non-life insurer Achmea plays an important role in many of these changes. Achmea joins partner networks to shape the future of (electric) mobility together with other parties. As part of the S4C-program Achmea will share their expertise in the area of insurances with sector partners, universities and governments in The Netherlands and the US.

Contributing to mobility concepts of the future
Robert Otto, member of the Executive Board of Achmea: “Innovation in the area of mobility is relevant to our customers in many sectors. Joining the S4C-program offers us opportunities to contribute to mobility of the future. The future of mobility is shaped with input from many parties. Sharing knowledge through platforms is the preferred way to foster strategic innovation. “

Achmea brings knowledge and expertise
“As the largest insurer of the Netherlands, Achmea brings unique expertise to Smart e-Mobility. Achmea has a clear focus on innovation and development of new companies. “I consider Achmea of great value to the trans-Atlantic partnership between the Netherlands and California”, says Peter van Deventer, Director of S4C.

About Achmea

Established in 1811, today Achmea is the largest insurance group in the Netherlands. In its home market, Achmea is market leader in non-life and health insurance. Gross written premiums for the group totalled approximately 20 billion euros over 2016, while the group’s solvency ratio remained strong at 185% at the end of June 2017. The group also offers income protection insurance, life insurance, pensions services and mortgages. Asset manager Achmea Investment Management, oversees over 117 billion euros in assets under management. Internationally, Achmea is active in Turkey, Greece, Ireland, Australia, Slovakia and Canada. Each insurer has deep understanding of its local market and customers.

Energy Northwest recently finalized agreements to be the lead agency in the Washington state Department of Transportation Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Pilot Project. Electric vehicle supply equipment providers Greenlots and EV4 are also participating in the project. The goal of the $1 million project is to construct a network of publicly available electric vehicle charging stations along Interstate 90, I-82, I-182 and US-395.

The province of Noord-Holland is going to test the SolaRoad solar-surface for heavy vehicle traffic. After the successful pilot on a cycling lane in Krommenie, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer and the province are looking for a suitable location for heavy vehicle traffic to drive over SolaRoad. The pilot will test the behavior of the road surface for heavy traffic and what the solar-surface means for the daily management and maintenance of the road. In addition, the province will test how the energy-yield can be maximized.

SolaRoad captures sunlight falling on the roadsurface through solar cells and converts this into electricity. The pavement acts as a large solar panel. By making smart use of the existing road network, it is possible to use a larger surface for collecting energy without affecting the landscape. Vice-governor Elisabeth Post: “It is time for a next step. The pilot in Krommenie has taught us a lot. We know that the road surface performs well under the cycling traffic, now we are going to investigate how it behaves when heavy vehicle traffic drive on the SolaRoad. If the pilot is successful, this greatly increases the possibilities for large-scale application of solar roads. “

Living Lab
The test location for heavy vehicle traffic in the Haarlemmermeer will become a living lab. This means that the test environment is set up on a public road. The test compartment is set up in phases, which also involves working with different materials. The Vice-governor has made € 2.700.000,- available for the pilot, the research and the further development of the product.

Cooperation and further development
SolaRoad is a development of the province of Noord-Holland, TNO and Strukton Civiel. In 2018, the province of Zuid-Holland will also carry out a trial with SolaRoad for heavy vehicle traffic. The province of Zuid-Holland wants to test the solar road surface on a bus lane, where the traffic situation is different from the road in Noord-Holland. The provinces work closely together and share knowledge and results.

In addition to the concrete pilot in the Haarlemmermeer, the province of Noord-Holland, TNO and Strukton Civiel are currently exploring the chances and opportunities for further commercialization of the SolaRoad initiative in a joint venture.

Smart roads and sustainable energytransition
The energy generated with sunlight can be used for many purposes, such as street lighting, households, traffic installations and electric driving. The innovation is in line with the sustainability objectives that many governments and companies, in the context of the Paris Climate Agreement, endorse. It contributes to CO2 reduction and makes a valuable contribution to the development of smart roads and sustainable energy transition.